On Tuesday, June 5th St. Dunstan's hosted Ambassador Mark C. Storella, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration at one of our regular policymaker discussions. He had a slide show about his recent visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh related to the Rohingya refugee crisis. He visited the camps in Bangladesh where 640,000 Rohingya refugees live in temporary facilities lacking decent water and sanitation and exposed to potentially deadly monsoon rains.  He met with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel-prize winning state counselor of Myanmar, and pressed her to take concrete action to improve their condition. 

In response to audience questions he indicated that both the regular and special refugee programs would admit fewer people than expected - perhaps 21,000 regular refugees and 13,000 special  immigrants for the entire year. He reminded us that resettlement of refugees in the U.S. cannot solve the problem of 65.6 million people displaced worldwide, and that there is an urgent need for the U.S. to provide refugee assistance and to seek durable political solutions that would allow repatriation or permanent residence. 

About 40 people attended from St. Dunstan's, other parishes, the community and from service organizations seeking to help refugees. Representatives from Lutheran Social Services were there and indicated that there was still a need for volunteers to help existing refugee families. 

Housing- In addition, for those interested in affordable housing issues there will be a Montgomery County Executive candidate forum tonight,  June 7 from 6:00 to 7:15 p.m. at the Housing Opportunities Commission, 10400 Detrick Ave., Kensington.  It is sponsored by the Montgomery Housing Alliance.  You can register for the event here. 

Healthcare- We talked at our last meeting about an event this fall related to health care. We thought that a good step might be to have an event at St. Dunstan's in September bringing together representatives of three groups - Montgomery County agencies, healthcare providers and healthcare advocacy groups - for an informational dialogue on what programs are in place and what might need improvement.  We also discussed a possible work product, a document outlining elements of a just society, including, for instance, enduring rights to adequate health care, food, clothing, housing, education, self-respect and dignity.  We talked about the need to provide a  floor for all in these areas as a way to preserve both freedom and justice.  I still have a homework project to produce a draft of this document for the group.

Let me ask if people think a meeting in late June, perhaps the week of June 25,  would be a helpful thing to make sure we have an understanding of our next steps and initiatives.

Best,